After messy UFC past, Nate Marquardt energized for final Strikeforce title fight

Now the Strikeforce welterweight champ is on the rise again and wants to keep it that way. Saturday, Marquardt (32-10-2 MMA, 1-0 SF) meets Tarec Saffiedine (13-3, 5-1) in the main event of Strikeforce’s final card, which takes place at Chesapeake Energy Center in Oklahoma City.

You couldn’t blame Marquardt if he was a little bit wiped out.

In June 2011, he was booted from the UFC following a flap over a pre-fight physical that ultimate left him uncleared to fight in the main event of UFC on Versus 4 a day before the fight thanks to a discrepancy over a therapeutic use exemption for testosterone replacement therapy.

He signed with Britain’s BAMMA, but never wound up fighting for the promotion and was let out of his contract a year ago this weekend. But despite Zuffa owning both the UFC and Strikeforce, and the UFC releasing him the year prior, Strikeforce brought him on board – and gave him a quick title shot.

Marquardt won the vacant 170-pound title in July, of course, and now he’s getting ready to defend it – for the first time and the last time as Strikeforce gets ready to turn off the lights for good.

“It was an emotional roller coaster, but I feel great now,” Marquardt on Thursday told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com). “I’m not exhausted at all. I’m energized, if anything.”

Marquardt said despite the recent rocky road with the UFC, it’s his understanding that he’ll be moving over to that promotion following Saturday’s fight, regardless of the outcome.

But he knows he makes things a lot easier on himself if he just wins the fight.

“Yeah, as far as I know (I’m going to the UFC),” he said. “But honestly, I’m just focused on my fight on Saturday. All I’ve got to do is go in there and knock this guy out, and everything else will take care of itself.

“It’s very cool (to headline the last Strikeforce show). It’s definitely an honor for me, but at the same time it’s just a fight. All that other stuff, I can’t control what happens outside of me. I just have to go in there and perform and put on a great fight, and that’s what I’m concerned about.”

In Saffiedine, Marquardt gets an opponent riding a three-fight win streak of decisions. And even though Saffiedine doesn’t have the highlight reel-type stuff that other fighters, say, Marquardt, might have, he believes that he still presents a worthy adversary.

“That’s one of the things that makes him dangerous is the fact he’s a constant steady pace the whole fight,” Marquardt said. “He does have some really slick kickboxing and karate from his background. He trains with Team Quest – he’s got good wrestling defense and offense. He scrambles well from the bottom. He’s never been finished, and you can tell he’s mentally tough. So I’m ready for this fight just like I was my last fight.”

His last fight was a fourth-round knockout of Tyron Woodley that won him the title he defends Saturday.

A win would make him the final Strikeforce welterweight champion – permanently. But it wouldn’t necessarily guarantee him a quick path to a shot at the 170-pound title in the UFC, which Georges St-Pierre will put up for grabs in March.

“Where I fit in in the mix isn’t really my decision,” Marquardt said. “It’s more up to the fans and the UFC. But I plan on putting on a great performance and I’m here to prove I’m the best, and that’s what I plan on doing. Of course, my goal is to be the champion.

“Being champion, when I gained the title in July, it was a dream come true. It was awesome, and this time is going to be the same.”

Beyond that, Marquardt seems to be subscribing to the theory of staying patient – and that’s what he’ll be doing regardless of what happens on Saturday against Saffiedine.

“One thing I’ve learned over the years is just control what you can control,” he said. “I’m not going to sit around and think about what could and might happen. I’ve just got to trust in God and basically just let stuff happen as it does.”

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